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Friday, September 27, 2013

Book review: Candy Girl

Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper by Diablo Cody

Description from Goodreads (below) can be found here along with other reviews.

Candy Girl is the story of a young writer who dared to bare it all as a stripper. At the age of twenty-four, Diablo Cody decided there had to be more to life than typing copy at an ad agency. She soon managed to find inspiration from a most unlikely source— amateur night at the seedy Skyway Lounge. While she doesn’t take home the prize that night, Diablo discovers to her surprise the act of stripping is an absolute thrill. This is Diablo’s captivating fish-out-of-water story of her yearlong walk on the wild side, from quiet gentlemen’s clubs to multilevel sex palaces and glassed-in peep shows. In witty prose she gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at this industry through a writer’s keen eye, chronicling her descent into the skin trade and the effect it had on her self-image and her relationship with her now husband.

Candy Girl is not for the faint of heart. Or the shy or squeamish.

I don't remember where I heard of this book, but it has been on my list for a very long time. Diablo Cody wrote the screenplay for Juno, so I expected it to be funny, and having never stripped, I knew it would be unlike anything I've experienced.

The story in Candy Girl is interesting -- Diablo really didn't seem like someone who'd end up as a stripper. All of it is new to her and that makes her really relatable, despite the job she has taken on.

But it's also graphic. Really graphic. Bodily fluids and weirdos and stuff. So you want to be prepared for that if you read it.

I didn't hate this book, and I didn't love it, but it was interesting and intriguing, so I figured I'd let you know it existed! :)